Census Bureau data show virtually no change in commuting times over the five-year period, averaging 22 to 23 minutes in Charlotte, Manatee, and Sarasota counties.

Even with the declines, though, 71,000 commuters still shuttle between counties daily from their homes in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties — a daily population in motion larger than any city in the region.

The rebounding labor market and gains in regional tourism are both likely to again boost traffic counts on area roadways.

The economic downturn "pushed out the increase in demand," said David L. Hutchinson, planning manager at the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization. "It has probably pushed it out by five years."

Labor force numbers correlate to shorter commute times, said Whit Blanton, a vice president at Renaissance Planning Group, an Orlando firm that is helping both Sarasota and Manatee counties prioritize road projects.

"The people who did not lose their jobs during the recession may indeed have a few extra minutes because of a shorter commute," Blanton said.

At the same time, though, the region's poor job market from 2008 to 2010 also meant some workers had to hang onto jobs requiring longer commutes.

Some 95,000 Manatee residents stay within their county during a daily commute, while 26,000 travel to Sarasota County. Far fewer Manatee residents — only 6,900 — head for a workday in Tampa Bay counties such as Hillsborough and Pinellas.

Among Sarasota County residents, far fewer cross county lines for a paycheck. The Census shows 125,000 staying, with just 11,000 heading to Manatee each workday. Roughly 7,300 Sarasotans commute to Charlotte, while another 1,000 drive even farther south to Lee County.

Eighteen-hundred head for either Hillsborough or Pinellas counties.

While 40,000 Charlotte residents stay within the county when commuting, 7,500 drive into Sarasota County to work and another 4,100 travel to Lee County.

Voting with their feet

Without question, the region's job market has improved since the end of 2011, the period that the Census data covers.

With more people working, that suggests more congestion is in the offing.

"The unemployment rate is taking another run down," said John Challenger, chief executive at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement firm. "There may be some people who have been in a longer commute, who were hunkered down, who might now be saying to themselves, 'Before, I couldn't afford to give up this job. Maybe now I can.' People can, and do, vote with their feet."

For those that have remained hunkered down, though, there has been additional leisure time — or at least less time stuck in traffic.

Sarasota metro area commuters actually picked up an entire work day per year as a result of decreased traffic and the soft economy, according to a "mobility index" compiled for Sarasota-Bradenton and other areas by Texas A&M University.

In the economic boom year of 2006, a Sarasota-Bradenton commuter lost 29 hours per year to traffic delays. Two years later, peak-time commuters were delayed by only 17 hours per year. In 2011, delays leveled out at 21 hours annually.

"A big drop in congestion corresponded to the economy," said Tim Lomax, a transportation engineer and one of the study's authors. "We saw that in a lot of cities around the country."

In the 1980s and 1990s, congestion was magnified by other demographic trends, such as suburban sprawl and more women entering the workforce, Lomax said. Those trends have both since leveled out.

"My best guess is we are going to see a slow growth in congestion," Lomax said. "One that probably mirrors what is happening with employment."

Hour-long commutes

Commutes of an hour or more are commonplace in many parts of the country, but they are atypical in Southwest Florida and the state as a whole.

Statewide, only 6.4 percent of all commuters spend an hour or more getting to work, while more than a quarter — 27.4 percent — of workers in and around Washington, D.C., burn two hours or more traveling to and from their places of employment. In all, 18 percent of workers in New York face hour or longer commutes.

In Sarasota County, just under 3 percent of commuters find themselves on the road an hour or more to work, Census data shows. On the other end of the spectrum, 11 percent have commutes requiring 10 minutes or less.

Still, there are some in Southwest Florida who spend significant time on the roads to get to their jobs.

Glen Goodfellow is one. The South Venice resident clocks 70 miles per day, five days a week, getting from his home to the Walmart Supercenter on State Road 70 in Manatee where he works.

"During the summer, you're talking 35 minutes. During the season it could push up to about 50 minutes," Goodfellow said.

Because he typically leaves for work before 6 a.m., he rarely runs into traffic problems. But he can't say the same for his commute home around 5 p.m.

"If there is any kind of an accident, that obviously backs it up," he said, adding that his longest southbound trek to date took 2 1/2 hours.

But even when Goodfellow has a bad ride home, at least he's not in Tampa. There, congestion remained high right through the Great Recession.

In 2006, commuters could count on losing 41 hours each year to delays. Five years later, delays still robbed commuters of 38 hours a year.

Lomax says the lack of a drop, even in the economic downturn, stemmed from the Tampa Bay region's built-in bottlenecks.

"The limited number of bridges by themselves causes traffic problems that don't go away," Lomax said. "As such, it just doesn't ever get that much better."